A Victory in the Fight for Sunshine in Canada (Darce Fardy)

It's not often that advocates for open government in Canada get good news. And never, I fear, can we expect a government leader to make the kind of pledge to openness and accountability that President Obama made — except during election campaigns.
Our Right to Know Coalition of Nova Scotia is three years old. When I retired after 11 years as Nova Scotia's Freedom of Information Commissioner I gathered a small like-minded group of people together to form a Freedom of Information advocacy group, only the second in Canada. I noticed during my years as commissioner that few people in our province (and likely throughout Canada) were aware of their rights under FOI legislation and those who did seldom used it. Talk of freedom of information is not something that energizes many people.
Like too many democracies in the world Canada suffers from alarmingly low voter turnouts in our federal, provincial and municipal elections; less than 60 percent. This means that in a parliamentary system with three or more political parties competing for power, a party can form a government with the expressed support of only 30 or 40 percent of the electorate. Not much of a mandate from the people.

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